Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Li Long remembered that in his previous life, there were also people growing melons in several other villages in his hometown. Sometimes when the melons were ripe and he wanted to go over to eat them, the owner of the land was there, and he felt a little embarrassed to say hello.

Now that the melons in my own home are ripe, I finally understand the landlord's thoughts. If someone comes to eat the melons, they are really welcome. After all, it is equivalent to free labor. They can help to break the melons open. As long as the seeds are left, the more you eat, the better.

With a slight change of mindset, I felt as if I was suddenly enlightened. No wonder the owners of some people's fields were so enthusiastic when I was eating melons in their previous life.

This is the reason.

Li Long had been a stay-at-home in the compound for a while, and he and Gu Xiaoxia had a shameless time of loving each other. When the melons were ripe, Li Long drove his tractor to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy things.

The two sales clerks in the supply and marketing cooperative store were replaced. Now one is a middle-aged woman and the other is a young girl. Li Long vaguely remembered that they seemed to be new graduates from technical secondary schools this year.

Li Long is a well-known figure in the cooperative. He may not know all the people in the supply and marketing cooperative, but basically everyone in the cooperative knows him. Even if they don’t know him, they have heard of his name. After all, Director Wei has seriously organized all the staff to learn about his deeds by reading newspapers, and this has happened more than once.

So when Li Long entered the supply and marketing cooperative store, the middle-aged woman Liu Xiumei took the initiative to greet him:

"Comrade Li Long is here, what do you need today?"

"Hello, Comrade Li Long!" The new female comrade Qin Xiulan greeted Li Long crisply, with curiosity in her big eyes.

"Hello, hello!" Li Long responded hurriedly. He didn't expect the other party to be so enthusiastic, but he didn't think about having more contact. He was just thinking about getting things done as soon as possible.

"I remember that we have a big pot in our store, the kind with a diameter of 1.2 meters. Do you have it in stock now?"

"Yes," Liu Xiumei was very familiar with the things in the store. She smiled and said, "Why did you think of buying such a big pot? What are you going to do with it?"

"My brother's family grows melons, and they are almost ripe. I plan to buy three large pots and use them to make tools to remove the melon seeds." Li Long explained briefly, "Do you have three?"

"We have two in the store. This kind of big pot may not be sold out in two or three months. I think there are more in the warehouse. I'll go get some for you."

"Thank you, Sister Liu." Li Long said, "Do you want me to move with you?"

"No, no." Sister Liu waved her hands hastily, "I'll ask warehouse manager He to help me move it. This is his job. You just sit down."

With that said, Sister Liu went out through the back door in a hurry.

Li Long and Qin Xiulan were the only ones left in the store. The atmosphere was a little awkward, so Li Long took the initiative to break the awkwardness:

"Comrade Xiao Qin, do you know how much a pot costs?"

"I... I'll check." Qin Xiulan really didn't know. Her face turned red and she quickly flipped through the notebook she brought with her. She turned over several pages and then read:

"A large pot with a diameter of 1.2 meters, the purchase price is..."

"No, no, no," Li Long laughed, "You can't sell it to me at the purchase price. You have to tell me the selling price. Otherwise, if you really tell me the purchase price, what should I do if I bargain with you?"

In fact, at this time, there was no bargaining in state-owned stores. It was a matter of choice.

Qin Xiulan originally didn't consider Li Long as an outsider. After all, they were all employees of the supply and marketing cooperative. Now that Li Long had said this, she knew she was a little nervous. Her face turned even redder and she began to stutter:

"The selling price... the selling price is nineteen dollars and eighty cents..."

"Okay, I understand." Li Long knew that he couldn't tease the little girl anymore, so he nodded and stopped talking.

Three pots cost fifty-nine dollars and forty cents, which is not cheap either.

But think about it, this big pot is made of solid material, all iron, so it's really worth it.

After a while, Sister Liu came in from the back door with the warehouse manager carrying a big pot. The warehouse manager was familiar with Li Long, so he greeted him and hurried back.

Li Long issued an invoice and paid. Sister Liu and Qin Xiulan wanted to help move the goods, but Li Long waved his hand hastily:

"Don't move it, it will be troublesome if you hurt your back."

He walked forward, picked up a big pot with both hands, turned around and left, and carefully placed it on the tractor truck bed.

The three big pots were put into the truck bed together. When they entered the supply and marketing cooperative store, both Sister Liu and Qin Xiulan opened their mouths wide.

This big pot is not light!

"Comrade Li Long, you are so strong." Sister Liu said enviously, "It would be great if my husband had your strength. It takes him a long time to move a table. He is far behind you."

"I'm young." Li Long didn't want to cause hatred, so he said hello to the two of them, hurried out, and drove away on the tractor.

An old mattress was prepared in the truck bed, and three pots were stacked upside down, with a mattress between each pot, so that they would not break if they collided. A thick sack was also laid under the truck bed, which was generally more stable.

"Look at him," Sister Liu sighed in the store, "He's so strong! In our community, are there any young people like him? He can make money, he's strong, he's polite, and he's handsome. Why did he get married so early?"

She turned her head and glanced at Qin Xiulan. Qin Xiulan blushed and hurriedly lowered her head pretending to look at the price of the goods.

Sister Liu shook her head. Qin Xiulan had just graduated from technical secondary school and was about 19 years old. It was time for her to find a partner.

Pity.

Li Long drove a tractor and pulled a big pot towards the team.

It is already the beginning of September and schools have already started. At the middle school, students are getting out of class and the whole campus is filled with laughter. When we get to the elementary school, classes are already in session and the sound of reading can be heard.

Li Long vaguely remembered that his elder brother Li Jianguo said that the place where he found the money cellar was not far south of the primary school. At the beginning, this large area was considered the area of ​​the fourth team. At that time, the other teams had not yet divided the area, so the area of ​​the fourth team was very large.

Li Long thought that when he gets older, he would buy a metal detector and come here to hunt for treasures and have some fun.

I don't know if it was illegal to do so at that time.

There should still be quite a few old copper coins left in that coin cellar, but of course I don’t know how many of them are usable.

After all, according to Li Jianguo, most of the copper coins were rotten and would break into pieces if squeezed by hand. The copper coins that could still be used took a lot of effort to pull out, and most of them were rotten.

Moreover, the soil was only plowed out at the time and was not completely cleaned up, let alone professional excavation by archaeologists and cultural relics management personnel.

So Li Long thought that there should still be many intact copper coins left there, and this area is sandy, so they will not be damaged in the past ten years.

Li Long thought that the tractor had crossed the boundary, passed Team 3, crossed the reed ditch, and reached Team 4.

There was no one else in the team using the tractor at the moment, so when the rumbling sound was heard, people knew that Li Long was back.

He planned to ask Li Jianguo if he wanted to buy a tractor after the melons were harvested. After all, he still had to harvest corn and do other work. If his elder brother wanted to buy a tractor, he could sponsor him.

Ever since Li Jianguo and Li Long caught Ma Long and Lu Tietou last time, the news spread among the villagers, and every family reminded their children:
"Don't go to the melon field to cause trouble, or I'll beat you to death! Did you hear that? Ma Long from Ma Yinbao's family was beaten so hard by his father that his nose was howling!"

In fact, children are still curious, but this time their parents really beat them. No teenager would like to try the feeling of being beaten with a belt again.

Thus, the Li family's melons grew safely to maturity.

Tractors have become the dream of the adults in the village. Some families don't even have donkey carts, but it doesn't stop them from dreaming of buying a tractor in two years and driving around like Li Long.

Li Long drove the tractor to his elder brother Li Jianguo's yard. It was already noon. Li Jianguo and Liang Yuemei had just returned from the fields. There were a few melons in the yard.

Li Long turned off the engine and got out of the car, asking:
"Brother, is this melon ripe?"

"It's cooked." Li Jianguo said with a smile:

"I've opened two of them in the field. The seeds are ripe, black and plump, but a little uneven and warped."

"What's there to be afraid of? Aren't they all sold at the same weight?" Li Qingxia didn't understand and asked, "How can there be different prices?"

Li Jianguo used to grow melons for the team when he was a member of the collective, so he knew this:
"That's different. If there are too many warped seeds, the price will be low and they won't be rated as high quality. Think about it, the roasted seeds factory buys them to roast and sell to people. When you crack these melon seeds, are the flat ones better or the warped ones better?"

"Of course the flat ones are easier to crack. The flat ones will be whole seeds, while the round ones will be broken into pieces." Li Qingxia understood immediately. Then he became worried:
"what is it now?"

"That's okay, there will be a way later." Li Long smiled, "We have a large family, so we can do the work in one go. I bought three big pots, me, my brother, my father, and I'll find a few young men, and we'll press the melons together to get the seeds out.

"Sister-in-law, take the second sister-in-law to find a board and pick out the fallen melon seeds. While they are just out of the melon and not yet dry, they are easy to deal with and can be flattened directly."

"Can it be flattened?" Li Qingxia was puzzled and didn't quite believe it. "Yes." Li Long nodded, "The melon seeds are still wet when they just come out of the melon, so they won't break if you press them at this time. It won't work if you press them after they are dried, because they will break. It's best to press them while they are still wet."

"Hey, Xiaolong is so smart!" Du Chunfang listened to his youngest son talking. The more he listened, the happier he became. He felt that his youngest son seemed to know everything.

In her eyes, Li Long is the best and no one can compare to him.

Neither can his elder brother.

In fact, this method is often used by roasted seeds factories in later generations. After all, if the black melon seeds are collected, washed and directly roasted, the melon seeds that are tilted up will not be able to be cracked to get the complete melon kernel, which will affect the taste.

If the taste is affected, customers are unlikely to repurchase. In order to solve this problem, the roasted seeds factory usually collects the seeds, soaks them, flattens them with a machine, and then roasts them.

So this is why the roasted black melon seeds you bought in the first few years were all in their “original shape”, some were flat and some were curled, but later on they were basically all flat.

Of course, some factories will press and some will not, it just depends on which one you like.

Li Long found out about this by chance in his previous life, because he would occasionally crack melon seeds and sometimes pay attention to agricultural machinery, and then he saw this kind of machine for crushing melon seeds.

There are no machines at the moment, so manual pressing may be time-consuming and laborious, but it is still worth it if you can get preferential treatment when you sell it.

In the 1980s, to be honest, labor was really worthless. If anyone could earn money by working hard, everyone would do it.

The problem is that many times even if you want to sell your labor to make money, there is nowhere to sell it.

The division of labor is clear, and everyone knows what they should do. The Li family has a lot of wooden boards.

Liang Yuemei and Chen Lirong were cooking, while Li Long, Li Jianguo and Li Qingxia were dividing the wooden boards here.

"These two pieces are heavier and longer, and are used directly to press the melons."

"These two pieces are wider and flatter. When the melon seeds are fished out, pick them out and press them on."

"It's best to put a big rock in the middle of both sides when pressing."

"Well, there are not many stones at home..." Li Jianguo looked.

"What's the big deal? When the tractor goes to work in the fields, just pick up a few pieces from the roadside." Li Qingxia was not worried at all.

In fact, there are only alkaline beaches here, so where are there so many stones?
"I'll go back to the county tonight, and when I come here tomorrow morning, I'll just pick up a few pieces from the river dam." Li Long said, "That's not a problem."

This is the right way, Li Jianguo nodded. There are still many stones beside the river dam (Mohequ), both large and small.

After lunch, Li Long originally wanted to take a break, but everyone wanted to see how to squeeze the melon seeds, so the whole family, including Du Chunfang, got on the tractor and went to the melon field together.

In the melon field, some melon vines have curled up and dried up, while some are still green. There are fine thorns on the leaves, which are not very prickly, but sticky to clothes. Looking from the edge of the field, you can see densely packed round melons, and occasionally you can see late-growing ones as big as fists.

If this were put into future generations, once the machine was turned on, it would be like harvesting wheat, and the harvest would be finished in minutes. The melons would be crushed in the machine, the seeds would be separated, and the rinds and pulp would be spit out and sprinkled on the ground as fertilizer.

Since the conditions are not met right now, we can only do it manually.

Li Long carried a big pot and walked twenty or thirty meters from the edge of the field. He found a suitable place to put the pot down, then turned around and pressed it down hard.

He was very strong and quickly pressed the pot downwards to make a hole, stabilizing the pot.

Li Qingxia and Li Jianguo each carried a piece of wood. Li Long took the piece from Li Qingxia and placed it flat on the big pot. Li Jianguo then placed the other piece in the shape of a cross on top.

Liang Yuemei and Chen Lirong both followed over, and Du Chunfang also walked over slowly to watch the fun.

"Come on, let's try it." Li Long knew that everyone still had doubts, after all, they had never seen it before.

I have seen it myself, and I know this method is very useful, so I said:

"Brother, pick a ripe one."

"Why pick? They're all ripe." Li Jianguo smiled and picked a melon the size of a basketball from the side.

Li Long took it and placed it on the wooden board - he moved the horizontal board aside.

"Come on, big brother, let's each take one end and press it down." Li Long put the melon in, in the middle of the lower board, and then pressed the melon down with the upper board.

The whole family gathered around, wanting to see what was going on and also to join in the fun.

"It can be pressed out," Liang Yuemei was used to farm work and could see the principle at a glance, "but I don't know if the melon seeds inside can be pressed out completely. If not, I'll have to pick them out."

"That's better than just picking on him!" Du Chunfang didn't care if it was right or not, she just wanted to protect Li Long. This idea was proposed by Li Long, so she thought it was good.

"That's right." Liang Yuemei smiled. She knew that her mother-in-law favored her younger brother-in-law, and she had no objection. After all, Li Long had changed a lot in the past two years and helped the family a lot, so she was very grateful.

"Come on, big brother, let's work together." Li Long said.

Both men were quite strong, and they didn't use much force. The melon was crushed, and the juice and seeds flowed out of the cracks and fell into the pot.

“It’s out, it’s out!” Unexpectedly, the first person to shout out was Chen Lirong. She had never seen anyone grow melons in her hometown, nor had she seen how the seeds came out.

It was the first time for Li Long and Li Jianguo to press the melon in their lives. They were afraid that not all the seeds would come out, so they pressed the melon until they could not press any more before relaxing.

"Come, let's see if there are any seeds left inside." Li Long picked up the board and put it aside, then pushed the board below so that his elder brother Li Jianguo could reach it.

Li Jianguo looked at the melon that was broken into pieces and simply didn't pick it up. He lifted the rind and took a look. He then reached out and pulled out the flesh a few times, and let out a surprised sound of "Huh".

In his opinion, with this method, there should be some melon seeds left in the melon pulp no matter what. However, after it was almost done, he saw two or three melon seeds in the pulp.

Almost all the seeds were squeezed out!
"Hey, this is a good idea!" Li Qingxia was excited. "Xiaolong, your idea is great! This will save us a lot of effort!"

Li Long smiled and said, OK, verification successful!
"Let me try, let me try!" Li Qingxia bent down, picked a melon and put it on the board. He also wanted to try it.

Li Long cooperated.

The two people pressed it down. Li Qingxia was quite strong, so the melon juice and seeds flowed out, and there were more melon seeds at the bottom of the pot.

"Some of them are really curled up." Chen Lirong had sharp eyes and saw that there were indeed quite a few curled melon seeds. "They need to be pressed."

"It's okay. It will become soft after soaking in the melon juice. It will be fine if you press it." Li Long said.

Li Qingxia personally checked the melon and found that there were indeed only a few seeds left inside.

He picked up the melon seeds and threw them into the pot, then said:
"Will you keep pressing like this from now on?"

"We can take the melons back and press them," Li Long said. "The melon rinds and pulp can be used to feed pigs."

"Okay." Li Jianguo smiled.

At this time, a villager passed by and walked to the melon field and shouted to Li Jianguo:

"Uncle Jianguo, can I have a melon?"

"Sure." Li Jianguo said with a smile, "Just eat it, and leave the seeds in the melon."

The man happily found a melon and started hitting it.

Eating big melon is more casual. The melon skin is thick and the flesh is less. Usually people just grab the middle piece of flesh and eat it, and ignore the rest.

Since there are too many melons, it’s not considered a waste.

The man was called Chen Qingfu, a dozen years younger than Li Jianguo, but he could be called uncle after all.

These days, if a child calls someone's parents by their full names, it's considered insulting.

The rules are very strict. (End of this chapter)